The massive stone tree looming before Damian was constructed from stacked, rectangular pillars with pitch-black bases and dark red, vein-like patterns.
From a distance, the jagged blocks looked almost like a stack of oversized toys, reminding Damian of the LEGO sets from his past life.
The trunk was riddled with large, hollow knots. But unlike the Bird-Chirping Pines in the Winter Forest that used these holes to catch insects, this stone replica served a much darker purpose. It was a massive hive for the Unicorn Stone Beetles.
Right on cue, a dense, churning swarm of the creatures poured out from the holes in the stone bark. The black mass of beetles surged directly toward Damian.
Damian didn't panic. Repeating his previous tactic, he drew another solid iron ball from his pocket and Transfigured it into a massive, heavy iron rod. Using his runic Invisible Hand, he gripped the makeshift weapon and swept it brutally through the air.
The sluggish Unicorn Stone Beetles were no match for the crushing physical force. Those struck by the iron rod shattered instantly, raining down from the sky like a shower of black gravel.
Unfortunately, the advantage didn't last. The colony was simply too massive. Even with the runic hand swinging the iron rod in wide, sweeping arcs, Damian was quickly overwhelmed by the sheer numbers.
As the vanguard of the swarm reached the Invisible Hand, they lunged. Their drill-like, red-and-black horns easily pierced the localized magical construct.
The runic hand violently destabilized and dissipated into the air. Losing its anchor, the heavy iron rod plummeted into the endless, bottomless Grey Mist below.
Seeing his defense crumble, Damian immediately commanded the second Invisible Hand beneath his feet to retreat at full speed. Luckily, the Unicorn Stone Beetles retained their notoriously slow flying speed. Within moments, Damian had left the churning swarm far behind.
There are just too many of them in a hive, he thought, catching his breath. Using blunt-force transfiguration was too inefficient for a swarm of that size, especially when standard spells were completely useless.
Furthermore, it was clear that the anti-magic stone easily punctured his runic constructs. Without the safety of a localized shield, he couldn't risk diving into the swarm to collect the fragments of the bugs he did manage to kill.
And without physically touching the debris, the metal disc couldn't absorb their residual energy. There was no point in lingering near the hive. He needed to hunt solitary targets.
Resuming his aerial trek, Damian spotted several other solitary stone creatures drifting through the mist. Curiously, their shapes perfectly mirrored the petrified flora and fauna of the Winter Forest.
Soon, he encountered a massive Stone Two-Headed Bull floating lazily in the air. It was a perfect, petrified replica of the mutated, two-headed beasts the expedition had avoided earlier that day.
Damian pulled another solid iron ball from his magically extended pocket. He had stockpiled dozens of these dense, Muggle-made weights before the expedition, so losing a few didn't bother him in the slightest.
Spotting Damian, the Stone Two-Headed Bull didn't blindly charge like the beetles. Instead, it opened both of its heavy stone maws. A dangerous, inky-black glow built in the back of its throats before twin beams of dark light erupted toward him.
Damian's eyes widened. He hastily cast Protego, but the semi-transparent shield charm instantly dissolved upon contact with the dark beams.
He commanded his runic Invisible Hand to drop him into a steep dive, narrowly avoiding the lethal beams as they scorched the air where his head had just been.
The Stone Two-Headed Bull smoothly adjusted its aim, tracking his descent. In response, Damian summoned another Invisible Hand, violently hurling the solid iron ball directly at the beast's head.
The Stone Two-Headed Bull reacted instantly, snapping its left head toward the incoming projectile and firing a beam of dark light.
The moment the beam struck the iron ball, the metal instantly transfigured into a smooth, black-and-red anti-magic stone. The sudden change in magical properties instantly severed Damian's connection to his runic hand.
But momentum was a purely physical force. The newly formed stone ball continued its high-speed trajectory, violently slamming into the Stone Two-Headed Bull's left head. The massive kinetic impact shattered the left half of the creature's body into jagged chunks.
Can it repair itself using the same material? Damian watched in astonishment as the heavily damaged beast stabilized. It wasn't dead.
Instead of pressing the attack, the Stone Two-Headed Bull used its remaining, intact head to greedily consume the floating debris around it. Slowly but surely, the shattered half of its body began to reconstruct itself.
Damian hovered at a safe distance, watching the bizarre process. After about a minute, the self-repair was complete. It had even consumed the converted iron ball.
But it hadn't just healed—it had grown an entirely new head, transforming into a stone three-headed bull.
It can evolve by consuming the anti-magic stone, Damian realized, baffled. But its intelligence is practically zero. This entire dimension is made of the stuff, yet they don't actively eat it unless provoked.
With a downward flick of his wrist, Damian released three more solid iron weights he had suspended high above the creature.
The stone three-headed bull fired its dark beams upwards, successfully converting the iron into anti-magic stone. But once again, it couldn't stop gravity. The three heavy stone spheres crashed down like meteors, completely pulverizing the beast into dust and gravel.
It didn't even try to dodge. Does it lack basic survival instincts? Damian shook his head. The creatures in the Divine Realm were fundamentally broken.
Floating down, he touched the remains. A burst of red energy, visible only to him, surged into the metal disc in his mind.
The energy harvested from the massive Stone Two-Headed Bull was roughly equivalent to three Unicorn Stone Beetles, despite yielding ten times the physical debris. The energy output clearly wasn't proportional to the creature's size.
Just as Damian turned to resume his hunt, a faint, silver-white glow caught the corner of his eye. His breath hitched.
Standing at the very edge of the Grey Mist was the Antlered Girl.
He had no idea when or how she had arrived. Her upper body was clearly visible, radiating a serene, ethereal light, while her lower half remained completely obscured by the swirling fog.
The moment his eyes locked onto her, a primal, suffocating terror gripped his heart. It was the same crushing, invisible pressure he had felt before—the undeniable aura of an apex entity. A Divine Attendant.
Just like their last encounter, the Antlered Girl slowly raised her right hand. Keeping her fingers perfectly straight, she silently pointed her index finger deep into the fog.
Unwilling to test his luck, Damian immediately triggered the metal disc anchoring his soul.
The world instantly began to warp and stretch. Fighting through the nauseating vertigo of dimensional transit, Damian forced his eyes to stay open, tracking the direction she had pointed.
From the ground, the fog had been too thick to see anything. But in the fraction of a second before his consciousness was violently yanked from the Divine Realm, his perspective shot high into the sky, offering a bird's-eye view of the misty abyss.
Looking down at the exact coordinates the Antlered Girl had indicated... Damian saw a faint, incomprehensibly massive black shadow lurking beneath the Grey Mist.
[75 STONES] - Unlock1 Bonus Chapter
[150 STONES] - Unlock 2 Bonus Chapters
[300 STONES] - Unlock 3 Bonus Chapters